Land purchased

During the year, ongoing protection of the reserves was made possible through WLT’s Keepers of the Wild programme. WLT’s Plant a Tree programme enabled reforestation of reserve areas that had been cleared prior to purchase. In addition, companies and individuals were able to offset their unavoidable carbon emissions through WLT’s Carbon Balanced programme.

*This total does not include areas of land reforested, designated a management area or otherwise protected but without being purchased

This brings to 30 the number of WLT’s partners. Of these, 26 are programme partners for whom WLT has committed funding for conservation activities, currently or in the past. The other four are operational (strategic) partners with whom WLT maintains active communication, particularly in respect to Conservation Alliance activities.

Keepers of the Wild

During the year, WLT’s Keepers of the Wild programme continued to strengthen the work of our partner conservation organisations. The Keepers of the Wild programme celebrated its first anniversary in March 2012, and by the end of the year 20 rangers were being funded with 12 partner organisations.

Carbon offsets

Meanwhile, work continued throughout 2012 to develop the Paraguay Forest Conservation Project in association with Guyra Paraguay and Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO). This is a major project, which over 20 years, will offset SPO’s unavoidable emissions by preventing the release of at least 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the biodiverse Chaco and Atlantic forest regions of Paraguay.

Dear Sara,
WLT has always been concerned by the amount of habitat loss occurring on Madagascar and of course it is a very high priority area for conservation. However, the Trust only works through in-country conservation NGOs which fulfil our criteria to become Programme Partners. To date we have not found a suitable partner in Madagascar that is also prioritising the purchase of land for conservation. Things may be changing on this front and WLT is always looking out for new opportunities but for now we have planned our 2013 budget and are fully committed to our 26 worldwide partners.
Mary Tibbett,
Conservation Programmes Officer (Africa & Asia Regions)

I am very happy that some land has been purchased and protected so that companies cant cut it down for gold mining or farm palm oil trees and i hope that people will keep donating to you and you can buy more land